The existence and continued acceptance and use of the World Wide Web and the Internet have resulted in many new and useful applications becoming available to users of the Internet. One such application which is growing in popularity is known as “instant messaging” or “IM”. Various IM applications are provided from many sources but all such applications have many common features.
In general, IM applications enable a user to register with an IM server on the World Wide Web or other network using the Internet. Such applications may also be accessed through other local area and wide area networks as well. When a user accesses an IM application, the user inputs the user's personal information together with a user identification (ID) and a password. The user is then enabled to designate a user name which the user will use to identify himself or herself in subsequent “chat” sessions or in sending messages to and receiving messages from other users.
As instant messaging is becoming a very valuable tool for both personal and business communications, it is imperative that it also allows for the privacy needs of the individual user. The user must have the option to select his or her on-line visibility without compromising his ability to use the chat functions, which is not possible in today's legacy applications. Some of the current chat applications do provide an option for “who can see me”, however, a user must (a) start the messaging software, such that everyone can see the user, then (b) reconfigure user preferences regarding who can see the user. Thus, the user may be exposed for a brief period of time, and even worse, if a user comes on-line only briefly and drops right back off-line, the user would give the impression to those other on-line participants that the user is avoiding them. There is no current means by which a user is provided with a standard entry which allows the user to look over the landscape and make whatever changes the user wishes to make before exposing the user to the on-line community.
Instant messaging has become an important part of both personal and business communications. Millions of users communicate using instant messaging systems every day, and as such, functionality and usability enhancements are important to the continued success of this communication tool. Instant messaging applications do, however, have serious flaws and/or shortcomings which must be corrected if they are to continue to thrive as a communications vehicle.
One such shortcoming with legacy instant messaging systems is the ability of the remote user to record the communications via a “cut-and-paste” or “file save” function. It may be very desirable to contact an on-line user immediately, yet very undesirable for that contacted user to be able to record the conversation.
Thus, there is a need for an improved methodology and system for enabling improved instant message processing in electronic communication systems.